Green Marketing: Sustainable Marketing Pros and Cons

Green marketing (also known as sustainable marketing, eco-marketing, and environmental marketing) is an advertising strategy marketers can apply to environmentally friendly brands, products, or services. An effective green marketing strategy behind green products or services usually features a messaging campaign that highlights their environmental benefits.

Sustainable marketing is a method companies use to reach an environmentally conscious target audience. Sustainable brands highlight their eco-friendly practices to increase brand loyalty and impact the purchasing decisions of green consumers (customers who value green products and services).

Eco-friendly practices a company might employ include pairing their waste disposal with a recycling program, making the switch to renewable energy, and sourcing renewable materials for manufacturing processes. Adopting these and other practices—“going green”—can help companies achieve environmental sustainability, an achievement that green marketing can highlight for potential or current consumers.

A green marketing strategy’s success depends on a company’s willingness to make real changes to its production methods and business practices. Here are three aspects of a green marketing strategy a business must consider or address in some way to use this type of marketing plan:

1. 1. Claiming social responsibility: In claiming corporate social responsibility for past transgressions and establishing initiatives to adopt eco-friendly practices, a company can take its first steps toward sustainability. Even a company that has had a negative impact on environmental issues, such as pollution or the destruction of natural resources, can rebrand to better connect with a green consumer base.
2. 2. Manufacturing eco-friendly products: A company can promote the sustainable products they create locally using locally sourced materials. This strategy can encourage customer loyalty in two ways. First, the company's investment in the environment will earn them brand-conscious consumers. Second, locally sourced products can boost nearby economies and create jobs.
3. 3. Promoting sustainable business practices: When companies go to extreme lengths to combat climate change, it incentivizes certain consumers to choose their products over less sustainable brands. Some common incentives include a brand's use of sustainable packaging, donations to charitable causes, or the use of recycled materials in their products.

Here are three ways a green marketing campaign might benefit a company and encourage it to continue reducing its impact on the environment:

• Identification of new and renewable resources: Moving away from traditional, nonrenewable resources and fossil fuels forces companies and industries to find creative alternatives. Although such a transition might temporarily reduce production, scarcity can lead to innovation, which can lead to finding more profitable processes that have less impact on the global environment.
• Increase in brand loyalty and conversions: Companies selling goods or services that appeal heavily to the Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability market demographic (or LOHAS) might experience an increase in sales and customer loyalty after adopting green practices and employing a green marketing strategy.
• Reduction in overhead costs: Renewable manufacturing processes can reduce a company's required use of utilities, such as water and electricity. As its green production strategy progresses, a company can become more self-sufficient and spend less of its overhead budget on utility bills.

In theory, green marketing should revolve around an altruistic approach to business and manufacturing; however, some companies use it for the wrong reasons or fail to predict potentially negative outcomes. Here are a few notable downsides to green marketing strategies:

• High expenses for sustainable products: Manufacturing eco-friendly products and instituting renewable energy programs can significantly benefit the environment but might be cost-prohibitive for small businesses. Similarly, these types of goods and services might be inaccessible to average consumers who can’t afford the costs transferred to them by the manufacturers and other vendors.
• Skeptical consumers: Greenwashing and eco-bleaching are terms for illegitimate forms of green marketing that savvy consumers can identify. For example, a company might claim to be reducing its impact on the environment but then does the bare minimum to appease consumers. Greenwashing techniques often use market research or trends to produce manipulative commercials and advertising campaigns. Unless a company can back up its green marketing claims, it risks alienating environmentally conscious consumers wary of these types of empty promises.
• Unforeseen industry-wide consequences: Some eco-friendly consumer trends might begin with noble intentions, but new supply and demand can result in companies becoming short-sighted. For example, a green marketing initiative might encourage consumers to switch from traditional cow milk to almond milk to significantly reduce the demand for dairy products and CO2 emissions. But the increased demand for almonds would force almond farmers to increase production, a process that requires significantly more water than that for raising dairy cows. In this hypothetical scenario, a consumer shift would lead to numerous drought and water shortages in regions where almonds grow.

Become a better communicator with the MasterClass Annual Membership. Spend some time with Daniel Pink, author of four New York Times bestsellers that focus on behavioral and social sciences, and learn his tips and tricks for perfecting a sales pitch, hacking your schedule for optimal productivity, and more.